What courses did Donald J. Trump take at Fordham University and his performance in them?
Executive summary
There is no verifiable public record listing the specific courses Donald J. Trump took at Fordham University or his grades in those courses; Fordham and multiple fact‑checks have confirmed that an image purporting to be a Fordham transcript is a forgery and that student records remain private under federal law [1] [2] [3]. Reporting shows Trump attended Fordham for two years before transferring to the Wharton School, but the university, citing privacy rules, has declined to release course‑level details or grades [4] [3].
1. Fordham attendance is documented, but granular records are not public
Contemporary profiles and university statements confirm Trump enrolled at Fordham University for two years in the mid‑1960s before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, but Fordham has repeatedly emphasized that students’ grades and test scores are protected by federal privacy law and have not been released for Trump [4] [3].
2. A circulated “transcript” claiming course names and a 1.28 GPA is a known forgery
An image that circulated widely online and claimed to show Trump’s Fordham report card—including specific course names, letter grades and a very low GPA—has been analyzed and discredited by multiple fact‑checking organizations and Fordham itself; the university labeled that image a forgery and noted visual inconsistencies and anachronisms in the document’s formatting and address details [1] [5] [6] [2].
3. Why the fake transcript spread and how institutions responded
The fraudulent document gained traction after testimony by Michael Cohen that he had sent letters warning Trump’s former schools not to disclose grades, which heightened public curiosity about what Fordham records might show; in response Fordham publicly reiterated it would not disclose records and confirmed it had been threatened with legal action in the 2016‑2019 period, while also labeling the leaked image bogus [3] [7].
4. What can and cannot be asserted about courses and grades
Because Fordham has not released Trump’s academic file and because circulating images claiming to be transcripts have been debunked, there is no reliable, documented list of the specific courses Trump took at Fordham nor authenticated grades or GPA figures; any publication of course titles or grade averages drawn from the forged image is unsupported by primary institutional records [1] [2] [6].
5. Alternative claims, motivations and the evidentiary gap
Some commentators and social media users treated the fake transcript as indicative of poor academic performance—an inference amplified by Michael Cohen’s claim that Trump’s camp sought to block release of records—but the absence of an authentic transcript means such interpretations rest on inference and politically motivated leaks rather than verifiable academic documentation; Fordham’s explicit denials suggest the forged document was used to shape public perception in a contested political moment [3] [7].
6. Reporting limitations and final assessment
Public reporting and fact checks uniformly converge on three points: Trump attended Fordham for two years, he then transferred to Wharton and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and Fordham has not released course‑level records because of student‑privacy protections; beyond these verified facts, there is no trustworthy publicly available list of the courses he took at Fordham or authenticated evidence of his performance in them, and the widely circulated “report card” should be treated as disinformation [4] [3] [1].